Natasha Lomas
Writer
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
UK parliament calls for antitrust, data abuse probe of Facebook
A final report by a British parliamentary committee which spent months last year investigating online political disinformation makes very uncomfortable reading for Facebook — with the company si
Even years later, Twitter doesn’t delete your direct messages
When does "delete" really mean delete? Not always, or even at all, if you're Twitter.
Biotech AI startup Sight Diagnostics gets $27.8M to speed up blood tests
Sight Diagnostics, an Israeli medical devices startup that’s using AI technology to speed up blood testing, has closed a $27.8 million Series C funding round. The company has built a desktop m
Apple is selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in Germany again
Two older iPhone models are back on sale in Apple stores in Germany — but only with Qualcomm chips inside. The iPhone maker was forced to pull the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models from shelves in i
Europe agrees platform rules to tackle unfair business practices
The European Union’s political institutions have reached agreement over new rules designed to boost transparency around online platform businesses and curb unfair practices to support traders an
GoEuro rebrands as Omio to take its travel aggregator business global
European multimodal travel booking platform GoEuro has announced a change of name and destination: Its new ambition is to go global, scaling beyond its regional grounding to tackle the challenge of in
DJI is updating its geofencing system across Europe after Gatwick drone debacle
Following the pre-Christmas drone debacle in the U.K. — which plunged thousands of people into travel misery after repeated drone sightings closed the runway at Gatwick, and later also briefly
The UK now has a law against upskirting
A law change that comes into force in the UK today makes the highly intrusive practice of ‘upskirting’ illegal. The government said it wants the new law to send a clear message that such
Facebook urged to offer an API for political ad transparency research
Facebook has been called upon to provide good faith researchers with an API to enable them to study how political ads are spreading and being amplified on its platform. A coalition of European academi
Dating apps face questions over age checks after report exposes child abuse
The UK government has said it could legislate to require age verification checks on users of dating apps, following an investigation into underage use of dating apps published by the Sunday Times ye
Is Europe closing in on an antitrust fix for surveillance technologists?
The German Federal Cartel Office’s decision to order Facebook to change how it processes users’ personal data this week is a sign the antitrust tide could at last be turning against platf
Tech platforms called to support public interest research into mental health impacts
The tech industry has been called on to share data with public sector researchers so the mental health and psychosocial impacts of their service on vulnerable users can be better understood, and also
German antitrust office limits Facebook’s data gathering
A lengthy antitrust probe into how Facebook gathers data on users has resulted in Germany’s competition watchdog banning the social network giant from combining data on users across its own suit
Fabula AI is using social spread to spot ‘fake news’
UK startup Fabula AI reckons it’s devised a way for artificial intelligence to help user generated content platforms get on top of the disinformation crisis that keeps rocking the world of socia
UK moves toward driverless car tests without safety drivers
The U.K. government has announced it’s working on a process to support so-called “advanced trials” of autonomous vehicles — i.e. trials without human safety drivers. It also sa
Europe’s highest human rights court to hear challenge to UK’s bulk surveillance regime
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has agreed to hear a legal challenge to the use of bulk data collection surveillance powers by U.K. intelligence agencies. Last September
Thriva expands its range of test-at-home kits to add female hormone and cortisol stress tests
U.K. home health analysis kit startup Thriva is adding three more products to its range later this month: A saliva-based cortisol stress test and two female hormone kits. The Seedcamp-backed U.K. sta
Instagram’s Adam Mosseri to meet UK health secretary over suicide content concerns
The still fresh-in-post boss of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has been asked to meet the UK’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, to discuss the social media platform’s handling of content that pro
Online platforms still not clear enough about hate speech takedowns: EC
In its latest monitoring report of a voluntary Code of Conduct on illegal hate speech, which platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube signed up to in Europe back in 2016, the European Commiss
WhatsApp adds support for Face ID/Touch ID biometric lock on iOS
WhatsApp users updating to the latest version of the messaging app on iOS will find a new setting lurking at the bottom of the Privacy menu that adds support for Apple’s biometric authentication